While there, Dr. Stevens presented on care of the injured patient in the developing world, focusing on the Unit’s trauma care efforts in Kenya as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Road Safety Program.

There are four specific aims of the trauma care efforts in Kenya, 1) to understand and evaluate the transport systems in the country (both formal and informal); 2) to evaluate the existing emergency response system; 3) to explore the triage capabilities of participating hospitals/healthcare facilities; and 4) to evaluate hospitals’ resources and infrastructure available for the injured patient.

In order to accomplish these goals, it is important to have multi-sector engagement including hospital administrators, practitioners and clinicians as well as the local and national governments and Ministries of Health. It’s equally important, Dr. Stevens said, to focus efforts on areas that will have the most impact.

In order to be most effective, the Unit’s trauma care efforts are focusing training of both pre-hospital and in-hospital trauma care providers while also developing and implementing trauma registries, and working to develop a dependable EMS communications system. The Unit is also advocating for increased stakeholder engagement in order to strengthen trauma care legislation in the country. Dr. Stevens is also developing a Trauma Care Quality Improvement Program and is o recommending continuing the trauma care evaluation using the Trauma Care System Profile (TSP) tool.

Improving the care of the injured patient in Kenya must be a multi-step approach that involves numerous organizations working in the country in an ongoing effort to ensure longevity of the program.

Sunday, November 17, 2013 marked the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, a worldwide acknowledgement of the 1.3 million people killed annually by road traffic crashes and a call for action to address this global epidemic.

The Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit (JH-IIRU) offers its deepest sympathies to those most affected by road traffic crashes—not only those who have lost their lives, but to the 20-50 million who are severely or permanently injured as a result of road collisions—and we reassert our commitment to reducing the number of needless injuries and deaths on the world’s roads.

JH-IIRU is currently working with a consortium of partners on the Global Road Safety Program, a five-year initiative that draws on support from Bloomberg Philanthropies to implement road safety solutions where they are needed most. While there is still much work to be done, JH-IIRU is dedicated to the Global Road Safety Program and proud to join with global partners in this effort.

In addition, JH-IIRU is working with partners in low and middle income countries – such as Pakistan, South Africa and Uganda – to help build capacity and develop data systems to address the growing burden of road injuries. Through research, training and partnerships, JH-IIRU hopes fewer and fewer people around the world will become victims of road traffic injuries.

JH-IIRU Associate Directors, Kent Stevens and Abdul Bachani, along with post doctoral fellow, Fatima Paruk, are in Nairobi, Kenya this week as part of a series of high-level meetings as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Road Safety Program.

More than 3000 people die each year in Kenya as the result of road traffic crashes. JH-IIRU, as part of the Global Road Safety Program, is working in two districts, Thika and Naivasha, to monitor and evaluate two major risk factors, helmet-wearing and speeding.

Research suggests that properly wearing a helmet can reduce the risk of head injury by nearly 70% and death by more than 40%. Research has also shown that an increase in average speed is directly related to both the likelihood of a crash and the severity of the consequences.

While in Nairobi, the JH-IIRU team will take part in the launch of a national speed prevention campaign, “Slow Down, Speed Kills.” The campaign, part of a joint collaboration with Global Road Safety Program consortium partner, the World Health Organization, as well as The Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Transport, includes radio messaging and outdoor adverts on billboards. The aim is to raise awareness among motorists of the risks and consequences of speeding.

JH-IIRU’s work in Thika and Naivasha, as part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Road Safety Program, shows that there has been a substantial increase in speed compliance. In Thika, speed compliance increased from 42% in June 2011 to 71% in June 2013, while the increase in Naivasha was from 50% to 77% for the same time frame. However, large vehicles, like matatus and buses and light trucks remain the least compliant in both districts.

The launch is part of the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Road Safety Program. Click here for an infographic on the work the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Road Safety Program constortium partners have been doing in Kenya.

JH-IIRU is very pleased to announce that Dr. Ricardo Pérez-Núñez had joined the Unit as a post doctoral fellow.

Dr. Pérez-Núñez studied medicine at the Universidad de Guadalajara in (México) before completing his Master’s and PhD at the National Institute of Public Health of Mexico (INSP). He started working at INSP’s Health System Research Centre in 2004, and since 2006 his work has focused on road traffic injury prevention. He co-led the research arm for violence and injury prevention at INSP from March 2008 to March 2009 and from June 2010 to date.

Dr. Pérez-Núñez has worked extensively with JH-IIRU in his capacity as one of the main collaborators for the Bloomberg Philanthropies Global Road Safety Program in Mexico. In addition, he is the Secretary of the Road Traffic Injuries Research Network (RTIRN) and a member of the Sistema Nacional de Investigadores in Mexico. In 2009, he was part of the consultant team that prepared the Status Report of Road Safety in the Americas which estimated the economic impact of road traffic injuries in Belize. In October 2012, he presented two studies at the 2012 World Safety Conference in Wellington, New Zealand.

Dr. Pérez-Núñez will spend at least one year in Baltimore working on the Global Road Safety Program in Mexico and Brazil and is interested in economic analyses. He has published more than 22 peer-reviewed articles, three books and two chapters in the area of health financing, analysis of health systems response and road traffic injuries.